Charlotte and team were exceptional!-- Dianne & John Ambrose

Both can apply for exemptions from the new "individual shared responsibility payment" requirements.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials say Obamacare's individual mandate exemption requires many people with incomes over a certain level to have "minimum essential coverage". Otherwise, they must pay a penalty for each month they weren't covered.

The the Tax Policy Center says most of those affected this year will pay between a minimum of $95 per adult and $47.50 per child for the full year. The maximum penalty will be $3,600 per affected adult and $1,900 per affected child.

In 2016, the annual minimum will rise to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child. The maximum will rise to $4,045 per adult and to $2,135 per child.

Officials also said a more flexible kind of penalty exemption exists: A "hardship exemption" for people who face many different types of hardship events, including: having filed for bankruptcy in the last six months, having recently suffered domestic violence, the death of a close family member, having received a shut-off notice from a utility company, having an inability to pay medical expenses in the last 24 months, or experiencing increased expenses as the result of a need to care for an ill, disabled or aging family member.

Exchange consumers should mail exemption applications to an office in London, KY.